Perfect
by Benji's Riot Gurl
Summary: Based on the song by Simple Plan; Raul holds expectations that Twister can't live up to. Will Twister make it, or will he snap? Please read and review!


I do not own Rocket Power or "Perfect". Klasky-Csupo owns RP and Simple Plan owns "Perfect". I'd be doing a lot more than writing fanfics if I owned them because I'd be rich.  
  
I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
*****PERFECT*****  
  
Twister Rodriguez turned off the ignition on his old black Mustang one Friday afternoon. He was coming home from school, which was his favorite time of the day. Same with his best friend, Otto Rocket. The two juniors at Ocean Shores High School dreaded the school day, which consisted of homework, stuck-up, snobby people, and teachers. School wasn't a treat for them, because they had changed over the years. Otto looked pretty much the same, but with longer dreadlocks. He usually just wore a T-shirt and jeans, the colors ranging from black to blue to green. Occasionally he'd wear studded bracelets and stuff from Hot Topic, but not all that much.  
  
~Hey, Dad, look at me  
  
Think back and talk to me~  
  
However, Twister was another story. He had grown his hair out to his shoulders and put black streaks in it. He wore all black everyday, and dark blue once in awhile. He sported black eyeliner and black nail polish, and wore studded jewelry and chains, which really frustrated his parents. He still wore his hat on occasion, but not very much. He had had terrible teenage years. He and Otto got joked on because they wouldn't follow stupid trends and they thought for themselves. Kids were also jealous because they were still the masters of skating and surfing. Twister still wasn't the sharpest tack in the box, but he knew who he was and that he didn't want to be one of the "mindless trendoids following the herd".  
  
~Did I grow up according to plan?~  
  
That was why Twister looked forward to going home. No lessons, no teachers, no snobs, no nothing. Unfortunately, there was still Raul Rodriguez. No, Raul did not beat him, Raul was a good man. When Twister hit the seventh grade, Raul set up some standards for him. Raul pushed Twister to improve his grades, and they did a little, he usually received C's and an occasional B, but Raul wanted him to get straight A's. He punished Twister when he failed, and laid out a college plan for Twister. He wanted Twister to go to college and be a doctor. He wanted Twister to succeed.  
  
~Do you think I'm wasting my time  
  
Doing things I wanna do?~  
  
Twister felt that he would succeed as a film director. He always taped Otto skating when they were younger, so Twister had had some experience. When Twister first entered high school, he decided that he would sign up for a class in film. However, his decision was crushed when his father signed him up for Latin. As mentioned before, Raul wanted him to be a doctor, so he made Twister take Latin because doctors are supposed to know the Latin prefixes and stuff. Twister wasn't thrilled, because not only did he like taking Spanish, but he didn't want to be a doctor.  
  
~But it hurts when you disapprove all along~  
  
"Dad, why do I have to take Latin?" Twister asked Raul angrily. It was the first day of ninth grade, and Twister had come home from school, bombarded with Latin homework.  
  
"Maurice, you need to be a doctor," began Raul. "Doctors have a good education and are very successful, and God knows Lars can't do that, so that leaves you."  
  
"But I wanna be a director," Twister snapped.  
  
"Don't you raise your voice to me, young man," Raul scolded harshly. "Besides, you are just wasting your time making all of those movies! They won't get you anywhere in life!"  
  
"You're wrong," said Twister as scooped up his books and went up to his room. A minute later, Raul heard the door slam as Good Charlotte's music blasted at full volume.  
  
~And now I try hard to make it  
  
I just want to make you proud~  
  
Now Twister was in the eleventh grade, and the memories of that day still haunted him. Unfortunately, Raul still hadn't cut him any slack. Twister was in his third year of Latin, but he hated it. For the past two years Twister had fought with Raul over scheduling and plans, etc., etc. Twister would want to sign up for classes like film and Spanish, but Raul made him take Latin and advanced sciences. Advances sciences were hard for Twist, considering he couldn't even make it through honors classes.  
  
~I'm never gonna be good enough for you~  
  
During the past two years, Twister knew that Raul would never change his mind. He tried to like his classes and he tried to meet Raul's expectations, but as time passed, he came to the realization that he could never be good enough for Raul. He studied hard and paid close attention in class, but that was never good enough for Raul because even thought Twister tried his best, his best always came short. As a result, he stopped trying and his grades were back to the normal C's and D's. Raul would get very mad each time Twister brought home a bad grade, and they would end up screaming at each other. Sandi, his mother, was always at work since she got a good job working at a salon, and Lars (who had grown out of bullying in the ninth grade) and Reggie eloped after he got her pregnant, so they moved to Ocean Lakes, a town about an hour away from Ocean Shores.  
  
~I can't pretend that I'm all right  
  
And you can't change me~  
  
Twister Rodriguez turned off the ignition on his old black Mustang one Friday afternoon. He was happy that school let out, but upset that he would have to face his father. Twister got a D on his Latin test, and when Raul found out, he would be furious. Twister picked up his backpack and walked sluggishly up the walkway with his head down. He unlocked the front door and walked inside to an empty house, which was nothing new. Raul didn't get home until about 5:30 or 6:00, and Sandi was gone until 8:00 every night. This gave Twister about an hour in a half to figure out how he was going to show his father his bad grade. He sat in his room and put on his Good Charlotte CD (A/N: Well what did you expect? Backstreet Boys? ^_^). He took his test out of his backpack and went downstairs to the kitchen. He put it down on the table where Raul would see it. When Raul got home, Twister decided that he and Otto would go skating, so maybe his father could blow off steam before he got home.  
  
~'Cuz we lost it all  
  
Nothing lasts forever  
  
I'm sorry  
  
I can't be perfect  
  
Now it's just too late  
  
And we can't go back  
  
I'm sorry  
  
I can't be perfect~  
  
When 5:00 rolled around, Twister and Otto headed to Mad Town, where they skated and Twister filmed some of Otto's moves. Twister had forgotten about the test, because he was having so much fun skating and filming. However, little did he know what he was to expect when he got home.  
  
"Another D, Maurice?" Raul angrily asked his son when Twister stepped in the door.  
  
"I tried," Twister said quietly as he looked down at his skateboard, which had the Good Charlotte logo spray painted on the deck.  
  
"You always say that," Raul said sternly. "If you were really trying, you'd be getting better grades!"  
  
"Well I'm sorry," said Twister. "I can't be perfect!" With that, he marched straight up to his room and slammed his door, leaving a furious Raul downstairs.  
  
~I try not to think  
  
About the pain I feel inside~  
  
Twister slid his skateboard underneath his bed and began to take off his pads and helmet. He stopped to take a quick look at his reflection in the mirror. He wasn't the doctor that his father wanted him to be, nor was he the scholar. He scowled under his breath as he continued to remove his pads, then sat down at his desk. He pulled out his Latin book, figuring that maybe if he did study a little bit harder, he could improve his grades. After about an hour or so, Twister still understood nothing. Latin had so many rules, and so much grammar that Twister couldn't keep up with. With that, Twister slammed his book shut and buried his face in his arms. He didn't want to cry, but no matter how hard he fought, tears flooded from his eyes.  
  
~Did you know you used to be my hero?~  
  
Twister remembered back when he was young, and Lars would always tease him and beat him up, and Raul would always come to the rescue. Like the time when they had a family party, and all of Twister's relatives were gushing over him about how cute he looked in his hat. Lars started mocking him, and Raul scolded him. And even earlier, when he first got the hat, he walked by the swing set, and Lars, who was sitting on a swing, tripped him, and Raul came over and smacked Lars. And nobody could forget the time when Lars told Twister that he had to move away with his Aunt Cliotilda, and Raul made him dig up mounds of dirt for Twister and his friends to BMX on.  
  
~All the days you spent with me,  
  
Now seem so far away~  
  
Twister cried even harder thinking about those memories, being they were so far away. As a child, he had looked up to Raul and saw him as Superman. Now, Raul had gone from the hero to the villain. Raul would never let up on him. He scolded Twister for every bad grade he got and told him that every failing grade was just one step farther away from Twister's success. Twister thought that it all was just a waste of time, because he wanted to be a director. Raul had supported this when he was a child, but for some strange reason, he didn't anymore. Maybe, Twister thought, it was because Lars had fallen in love with Reggie and got her pregnant when he was only nineteen, so Twister had to live up to the good Rodriguez name.  
  
~And it feels like you don't care anymore~  
  
Twister could live up to the good Rodriguez name, he felt. But not by being a doctor. He was a kick-ass film director, and he could do it if only he could get the classes he needed. Raul prohibited Twister taking film classes, not acknowledging the fact that they made him happy. Raul wanted Twister to be happy, and that's why he pushed Twister to be a doctor. He wanted Twister to make a lot of money and get a wife and kids and be able to provide for them. If he became a director, he'd become so wrapped up in showbiz, he'd never find a wife, and even though he would still have plenty of greens, he wouldn't have a normal life and he wouldn't have time for his friends.  
  
~And now I try hard to make it  
  
I just want to make you proud~  
  
That made a little sense to Twister, but he knew that it wasn't entirely true. He would be a director, but he wouldn't let it get to his head. And he wouldn't be friendless because Otto would be with him every step of the way. No matter what happened, Otto would always be there for Twister, and vice versa. Twister picked his head up off his desk when the thought of Otto crossed his mind. Raymundo expected so little of Reggie and Otto, even though he was kinda mad when Reggie got pregnant, and was even madder when she said that she wanted to keep the baby, but Raymundo didn't push his kids into careers that they didn't want. Just the thought of that made Twister's head hurt, so he turned off his light and went to bed, even though it was only 8:00. He needed to escape.  
  
~I'm never gonna be good enough for you~  
  
The next day at school, Otto noticed that Twister seemed pretty down in the dumps. He was extremely quiet, and not once did he smile. Something was up, and being that this was his best friend, Otto decided that he needed to talk to Twister and find out what was bugging him.  
  
"Twist, what's with you?" Otto asked at lunch as he watched his friend just sit there, slowly munching on potato chips. It was just the two of them, since Reggie and Lars were gone, and Sam was able to graduate early since he had really good grades.  
  
"My dad has been bugging me," Twister said quietly, not looking up.  
  
"What's he doing?" asked Otto.  
  
"He's still giving me shit because I'm close to failing Latin," replied Twister, whose head was still staring at his lap.  
  
"Is that all?"  
  
"He's making me take all these classes I don't want because he wants me to be a doctor. I'm sick of it."  
  
"Why don't you tell him that?"  
  
"I have. He doesn't listen to me," Twister began to get angry thinking about his father, when the bell rang. "I'll see you later," he said to Otto as he headed towards Advanced Biology, which was obviously a class of Raul's choosing.  
  
~I can't stand another fight  
  
And nothing's alright~  
  
Ms. Waters, Twister's Biology teacher, passed back the tests from the week before. Twister sat in his seat, and listened as the kids around him talked about their A's and B's. When Ms. Waters neared Twister, she had a bit of a frown on her face, indicating that whatever Twister's grade was, it wasn't good. She handed him his paper and simply said, "Better luck next time." Twister looked at the score on top of his paper: 37%. He set the paper down on his desk and rubbed his temples, wondering how he would break this to Raul. He couldn't hide his grades, which he had tried in the past, because one way or another, Raul would find them. When Raul didn't demand to see his papers, he always found them somehow.  
  
~'Cuz we lost it all  
  
Nothing lasts forever  
  
I'm sorry  
  
I can't be perfect  
  
Now it's just too late  
  
And we can't go back  
  
I'm sorry  
  
I can't be perfect~  
  
Twister arrived home on that afternoon, down in the dumps as usual. He once again arrived in his empty house, then set his failed test on the table. He knew that Raul would explode when he saw it, but there was no way of avoiding it. There was just no possible way. Twister opened up the refrigerator and grabbed a peanut butter cup. He shut the fridge and sat down on a barstool and began to eat the candy. He hoped that it would make him feel better, since peanut butter cups were his favorite candy, but he was just too depressed. He couldn't think of anything else except his grade, and how Raul would whip his ass when he saw it. It was times like this that Twister felt that life was unkind to him.  
  
~Nothing's gonna change the things that you said  
  
Nothing's gonna make this right again~  
  
Twister got out of the kitchen and headed up towards his room. Part of him decided that he needed to study, but part of him didn't want to. Not only because it was boring as hell, but it was just a waste of time. Twister wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, so no matter how hard he studied, he always failed. Not only that, but Raul just flat out accused him of being lazy and not working hard enough. When Raul told Twister that his camera would get him nowhere, the words rung in Twister's head for days. Those words would stick with him forever.  
  
~Please don't turn your back  
  
I can't believe it's hard  
  
Just to talk to you  
  
But you don't understand~  
  
Twister decided to take a nap until his father came home, because he knew that Raul would wake him up to scold him. Which is exactly what happened.  
  
"MAURICE MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ!" Raul screamed from downstairs, stirring Twister from his slumber. Twister shot up from his bed and hurried down the stairs to see an angry Raul.  
  
"Dad, I tried--" Twister began, but was cut off by Raul.  
  
"Don't give me this 'I tried' shit! There is no way anybody could try and still fail," Raul said harshly, his face turning red from anger.  
  
"I did try!" Twister screamed back, clenching his teeth.  
  
"Not hard enough!"  
  
"LISTEN!" Twister began to turn red in the face. "I gave it all I had, and I studied until I thought I would explode! Even though I still failed, you should be happy that I tried! Especially since YOU wanted me to take these classes, NOT me! I'm sorry, I can't be perfect!" With that, Twister stormed upstairs, with Raul following and screaming at him.  
  
~'Cuz we lost it all  
  
Nothing lasts forever  
  
I'm sorry  
  
I can't be perfect  
  
Now it's just too late  
  
And we can't go back  
  
I'm sorry  
  
I can't be perfect~  
  
Raul continued to give Twister shit for another twenty minutes, then went back downstairs. Twister decided that he couldn't take it anymore. He ran to his closet and grabbed his suitcase, filling it with clothing, accessories, and hygiene products. He tossed all of his Good Charlotte stuff in there, and took the posters off the wall. He packed in his camera, his movies, his pads and skates, his stereo, CDs, and other things that held value to him. When he finished packing, he looked around at his room as blood continued to boil up his spine. He pushed his mattress off of his bed and kicked his nightstand over. He continued to wreck the room in pure anger until everything was a mess. Lastly, he wrote the lyrics to "Perfect" by Simple Plan on his walls with a Dry-Erase marker, hoping to leave a message to his parents. He then took his car keys and jumped out the window, and headed towards his car. He got in and drove off to Ocean Lakes, where he would live with Reggie and Lars until he found a place of his own-- a place where Raul could never find him.  
  
~'Cuz we lost it all  
  
Nothing lasts forever  
  
I'm sorry  
  
I can't be perfect  
  
Now it's just too late  
  
And we can't go back  
  
I'm sorry  
  
I can't be perfect~  
  
***THE END***  
  
Hey!!!!!!!!! I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And I changed my screen name, too!) Well, I wasn't gone, I was just working on three other stories. And I live in VA, so Hurricane Isabel hit us pretty badly, and we didn't have power for 5 days, so that kinda delayed this. And my kitty hurt his paw on the debris and he has stitches. :'( But he'll be OK. And a tree fell over and almost smashed the car. Other than that, no real damage.  
  
Anyways, I have no ideas for those other stories, and I heard this song and thought that it would make a good songfic. I like Simple Plan, just not as much as Good Charlotte. (And I got tickets to see them in October....WHOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO! ^o^) Well, anyways, please read and review not only this story, but FIRST DAY IN COLLEGE by Ottomatic21. He's one of my best friends, and he's a great writer! Also please visit my web page and tell me what you think. I don't have a counter, so I need to know if anyone's looking at it! Anyways, please R/R!!! :^) 


End file.
